North Eastern Region: Vision 2020
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i ii NORTH EASTERN REGION VISION 2020 THE VISION STATEMENT 1. At Independence, the North Eastern Region was among the most prosperous regions of India. Sixty years on, the Region as a whole, and the States that comprise it, are lagging far behind the rest of the country in most important parameters of growth. 2. The purpose of this Vision document is to return the North Eastern Region to the position of national economic eminence it held till a few decades ago; to so fashion the development process that growth springs from and spreads out to the grassroots; and to ensure that the Region plays the arrow-head role it must play in the vanguard of the country’s Look East Policy. 3. It is recognized that the Partition of India and the denial, since the India-Pakistan war of 1965, of transit facilities to physically link all but 29 kilometres of the North East to the rest of India has severely limited the economic prospects of the North East. It is further recognized that an imaginative leap in foreign policy, defence policy and internal security policy, as much as in investment, infrastructure and commercial policy, is required to end the Region’s geo-political isolation and put it on the path to accelerated and inclusive growth. 4. Inclusive growth calls for inclusive governance. The North Eastern Region has long- established traditions of community-based economic and social organization. This has facilitated a smooth transition to contemporary institutions of Panchayati Raj in all of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh; most of Assam and Tripura; and the valley areas of Manipur. The States of Meghalaya and Mizoram in their entirety and certain parts of Assam and Tripura fall under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the institutions of local governance established thereunder for these areas, reinforced by village-level representative bodies. The hill areas of Manipur have local bodies mandated by State legislation. Nagaland has well established institutions of village level administration and development through village councils and village development boards respectively, set up as per Naga customary practices and usages, and also duly mandated by the State’s Acts and Rules. The Nagaland experience of Communitization has been held up as the exemplar for the country as a whole by none less than former President Abdul Kalam. Thus the North Eastern Region is well-equipped with institutions of inclusive governance to assure inclusive growth. This Vision for accelerated and inclusive growth is predicated on the growth process involving and spreading through these various institutions of democratic, representative, participative and popular development. 5. The priority sector must be agriculture for with the Region’s very high dependence on agriculture and allied activities, comprising over 80 per cent of the Region’s gross domestic product, it is only through a Green Revolution that the back of the Region’s poverty can iii be broken and the people as a whole placed on the parabola of progress. Such a Green Revolution must comprise the following essential elements: - The rapid replacement of traditional cropping patterns by short-duration, high-yielding varieties of paddy in the kharif season followed in the rabi season by wheat, maize, mustard or vegetables, along with soil nutrients like lime and the judicious use of pesticides, to dramatically augment agriculture productivity. - The productivity of agro horticulture crops in the North Eastern Region is significantly lower than the prevailing national standards. It is imperative to promote improved methods of cultivation to raise productivity levels. A successful example is the adoption of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in Tripura which has yielded a dramatic rise in productivity. This may be emulated by other areas of the region that lie in the plains. - Widespread promotion of horticulture and floriculture, as well as of medicinal and aromatic plants and herbs, including organic farming, to capture highly remunerative niche markets abroad. Sikkim, particularly, would pursue its natural inherent competitive advantages in horticulture and floriculture. - Plantations, especially for bamboo, rubber, spices and fruit, and the rejuvenation of the tea gardens, especially through small farmers and farmers’ groups. - Forestry and conservation to ensure the premier position of the North East in forest cover; bio-diversity and genetic wealth; and wild life - The progressive phasing out of the practice of jhoom, but only after guaranteeing alternative, remunerative local means of livelihood to the tribal communities concerned - The determined promotion of all forms of animal husbandry, fisheries, dairying and bird life (the decline in all of which has substantially contributed to low nutritional standards in the North East). This would be accompanied by promotion of fodder cultivation and sustained availability of animal feed. Enhancement of yields and output in agriculture and allied activities would need to be complemented by market development and monetization of the rural economy, calling for integrated attention to: - Agricultural extension, including mobilizing the Panchayats and other institutions of local self-government for the purpose - Land reforms - Rural credit and banking - Reform of agriculture cooperatives on the lines of the recommendations of the Vaidyanathan Committee on Short-term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure - Agricultural link roads to reach farm output to markets - Cold chain links and cold storages iv - Export and fiscal incentives - Non-Farm Rural Employment and Income Generation, especially handlooms, handicrafts and animal husbandry As with investment in industry and infrastructure which is governed by the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy, (NEIIPP) 2007, the rural sector requires a North East Agriculture and Allied Activities Development and Export Promotion Policy. Irrigation and flood control, including drainage systems to prevent water logging, are also directly associated with the spread of the Green Revolution. With large dams becoming increasingly unfeasible for social, environmental and technical reasons, attention must focus on other means of irrigation. Water-harvesting, moisture conservation and prevention of soil erosion, especially in hill areas, is of crucial importance for the realization of their agricultural potential. Floods cause havoc, wiping out most gains of economic development virtually on an annual basis. Massive investment, accompanied by imaginative technical innovation, in irrigation and flood control, must be integral to the spread of the Green Revolution. 6. Inclusive growth calls for attention to inclusive governance and rural development. The single biggest constraint to accelerated growth is poor infrastructure affecting: - road connectivity - rail connectivity - air connectivity - cyber and telecom connectivity - inland waterways -power The North Eastern Council (NEC) Sectoral Summits have identified in detail the steps that need to be taken in, and the financial resources required for, each of these key infrastructure sectors. The Union Government has assured the financial resources required. Wherever the public-private partnership (PPP) model is not found suitable in the North East, development of critical physical infrastructure should be funded through public resources in a time bound manner. The gaping lacuna is adequate absorptive capacity. While the North Eastern States will undertake determined efforts to augment domestic absorptive capacity, it would be essential to bring in the private sector from the rest of the country, as well as foreign direct investment, equipment, management and technical expertise, to exponentially increase the absorptive capacity to take in the financial resources available for building infrastructure. It would also be critical to inclusive growth to ensure that the first beneficiaries of infrastructure development, especially in regard to power and road connectivity, are the people of the North East in their far-flung villages and towns. v 7. Even as the North East Industrial Policy (NEIP), 1997 saw a substantial spurt in investment in the hill states of North India (to which NEIP 1997 was extended), it is now expected that the comprehensive North East Industrial Investment and Promotion Policy, 2007 exclusively meant for the eight North East States, will lead to rapid and widespread industrial development in the North East Region, including not only large but also small and medium industry, as also in the services sector, including the hospitality industry and tourism; IT and ITES; and the health sector. Initial responses from Indian and foreign (especially NRI and Thai) investors have been encouraging. Village and micro-enterprises, and Rural Business Hubs set up by business enterprises in association with Panchayats and other representative local bodies, will help supplement farm employment and incomes and progressively draw excess populations off the land. A major thrust towards entrepreneurship development is being coordinated by the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati. The North East Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) and the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the designated chamber for the industrialization of the North East, are critical to the implementation of NEIIPP, 2007. 8. The potential for quarrying and mining, ranging from coal and limestone to uranium, is very considerable but requires the most careful adherence to environmental laws,